Refractive Index of Water in Dependence of Temperature

Princess Diana P. Bonifacio, Amira M. Payao, Faijah Samson

Department of Physics, Western Mindanao State University, Philippines

Abstract
Keywords: water refractive index, temperature-dependence

1. Introduction
Water is one of the most essential compounds which allows the chemistry of life to take place.

The goal of this study is to obtain the refractive index of water in dependence on temperature using the Snell’s law

n1sin θ1= n2 sin θ2 (1)

where n1 is index of refraction of air, 1.00, and θ 1 is the Angle of incidence coming from the laser to the surface of the water. θ 2 is the Angle of
refraction coming from the surface of the water to the bottom of the container. n 2 is the index of refraction of water.

as well as getting the percentage error of the index of refraction of water on a room temperature from our experimental calculation vs. the
theoretical value, 1.33. we use the percentage error equation

Percentage Error =E - T X 100% (2)

T
where E is the experimental value of the index of refraction of water on a room temperature and T is the theoretical value of the index of
refraction of water on a room temperature, which is 1.33.
 2. Methodology

A laser was pointed at the box container containing water. The normal line was drawn vertically on the point where the laser touched the
surface of the water. The angle of incidence was measured and kept constant throughout the experiment. For temperatures 30oc to 0oc, blocks
of ice were added into the water until desired temperature were achieved. In every temperature leap, the angle of refraction was measured
using a protractor. For temperatures 40 oc to 100oc, we heat the water in a beaker and measured its temperature. Once the desired temperature
was achieved, the water was transferred to the box container. In every temperature leap, the angle of refraction was measured. The angle of
refraction is then solved using equation 1 for every temperature it corresponds.

Table 1: The refractive index of water in dependence on temperature.

Temperature, oC Angle of incidence Index of refraction of air Angle of refraction Index of refraction of water

0 1.00
10 1.00
20 1.00
30 1.00
40 1.00
50 1.00
60 1.00
70 1.00
80 1.00
90 1.00
100 1.00

As initial data for the construction of approximation dependencies, we have used data presented in Table 1. These data show that
the index of refraction of water decreases with the increase of temperature.

Table 2: The Theoretical and Experimental value of index of refraction of water in a room temperature.

Temperature, oC Theoretical value of Experimental

index of refraction value of index of
of water refraction of water
30 1.33

Percentage error of the index of refraction of water in a room temperature has been obtained using equation 2

Percentage Error = E - 1.33 X 100%

1.33

1. Results and Discussion

Using the data presented in Table 1, we have approximated the refractive index of water in dependence on temperature by the Snell’s law
formula for each temperature. The graph of temperature vs. index of refraction of water was plotted.
Acknowledgements

References
Bashkatov, Alexey & Genina, Elina. Water refractive index in dependence on temperature and wavelength: A simple
approximation. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. 5068. 10.1117/12.518857. (2003)